Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity unveils winners in the Creative B2B, Creative Data, Direct, Media, PR and Social & Influencer Lions
By Zion Rufus
On the third day of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the winners in the Creative B2B, Creative Data, Direct, Media, PR and Social & Influencer Lions were unveiled.
Simon Cook, CEO, LIONS, said, “It’s inspiring to see the breadth of winners emerging and particularly first-time winners. We saw Iceland win their first Lion last night and tonight, Kazakhstan are taking home their first-ever Lion, having won Gold in the Social & Influencer Lions. Congratulations to all of our Lion winners, as well as those shortlisted, who are driving progress for people, businesses and society across the world.”
In the Creative B2B Lions, celebrating game-changing creative work in the B2B space, 371 entries were received and 13 Lions awarded: six Gold, four Silver, two Bronze and the Grand Prix that went to ‘Meet Marina Prieto’ for JCDecaux by David, Madrid. To promote the effectiveness of the outdoor advertising brand’s media spaces to C-Suite marketers in Spain, the company flooded the Spanish subway with images from the Instagram profile of an unknown 100-year-old woman. JCDecaux’s ‘Meet Marina Prieto’ campaign grew Marina’s following by +39285% and helped drive double the media investment to the advertiser.
Creative B2B Jury President, Andisa Ntsubane, Managing Executive of brand, marketing and communications at Vodacom Group Africa, said: “The story of Marina Prieto is the ultimate celebration of humanity. It’s a story of intrigue, hope, inspiration and possibilities. A powerful, insightful and resourceful way of engaging audiences whilst proving a business case. A simple and smart B2B idea that proves that you don’t always have to use AI or new-generation technologies to breakthrough.”
From 366 entries in the Creative Data Lions, celebrating the interplay of ideas and information, 12 Lions were awarded: three Gold, three Silver, five Bronze and the Grand Prix was awarded to ‘Room For Everyone’ for Mastercard by McCann Poland, Warsaw. As Poland experienced a mass influx of Ukrainians fleeing the country due to the war, the financial services brand helped tackle growing xenophobia towards the refugees by creating a platform that pinpointed optimal locations where Ukrainian businesses could open nearby complimentary Polish firms.
Creative Data Jury President, Rose Herceg, Country President Australia & New Zealand, WPP, ANZ, said: “Our Grand Prix winner ‘Room for Everyone’ is the best argument for creativity as the key lever for determining success. This work delivers socially, economically, geographically, and culturally. It helps create a booming small business economy, reminds us that there is more that unites us than divides us, takes data and uses it with such incredible finesse and achieves all of this in one campaign. This work is exactly what we are looking for in the Creative Data category.”
The Direct Lions, celebrating targeted and response-driven creativity, received 2025 entries and 62 Lions were awarded: 10 Gold, 20 Silver, 31 Bronze and the Grand Prix went to ‘The Everyday Tactician’ for Xbox Games Pass by McCann London, UK – the campaign’s second Grand Prix so far this year. The brand listed a new tactician job posting for a professional UK football club that could only be applied for through its newly launched Football Manager 2024 game, creating a documentary that followed the new hire transferring his digital expertise over to a real-world football team.
Direct Lions Jury President, Pancho Cassis, Partner and Global Chief Creative Officer at David, Global, said: “As soon as we saw this idea, we knew there was something special. And when we had to choose the Grand Prix, we chose with our hearts, the idea that we felt was magical. An idea that ticks all the boxes of a perfect direct campaign, but also opens the door to new thinking and will inspire creatives and brands to think in different ways. Also, it’s an idea that teaches all of us the value of patience – turning a great thought into an unbeatable integrated direct campaign.”
In the Media Lions, which demonstrate work that enhances and amplifies through game-changing channel strategy, 1888 entries were received and 60 Lions were awarded by the Jury: 10 Gold, 19 Silver, 30 Bronze and the Grand Prix was presented to ‘Handshake Hunt’ for Mercado Libre by Gut, São Paulo, Brazil. As Brazilians hit the internet during Black Friday 2023, the retailer launched a clever awareness campaign of its various promotional discounts. For the entire day of the consumer holiday and across the world’s second-largest TV Network, Globo, whenever a handshake happened on screen a scannable pop-up QR code appeared in the corner of the person’s TV linking to a promotional offer.
Media Jury President, Prerna Mehrotra, Chief Client Officer & CEO Media, Dentsu APAC, said: “At a time when attention is fragmented, this idea has proven that a strong insight can lead technology to reinvent the TV-watching experience in a clever way that not only drives participation, but also wins business.”
The PR Lions, which honour strategic and creative communication – work with storytelling at its core, which establishes, protects and enhances reputation and business, awarded 50 Lions from 1528 entries: eight Gold, 16 Silver, 25 Bronze and the Grand Prix went to ‘The Misheard Version’ for Specsavers by Golin, London, UK. The healthcare specialists in vision and hearing employed UK pop singer Rick Astley to covertly re-record the lyrics to his hit single Never Gonna Give You Up to convince people to sign up for a free hearing test.
PR Jury President, Kat Thomas, Founder & Global Chief Creative Officer at One Green Bean, Global, said: “Since the PR Lions first launched, there has been the same speculation every year – will a PR agency pick up the Grand Prix? I could not be more delighted that 2024 is the year that history will be made. There were some outstanding campaigns that won gold this year – work that was discussed over several hours of deliberation. However, the Jury felt that The Misheard Version over-delivered against every evaluation benchmark we set ourselves, from standout earned-first creativity to cultural relevance, right through to meaningful commercial impact.”
From 1769 entries received in the Social & Influencer Lions, 56 Lions were awarded: 9 Gold, 18 Silver, 28 Bronze and the Grand Prix was presented to ‘Michael Cerave’ for Cerave by Ogilvy PR, New York. The skincare brand created a faux-hoax conspiracy that the founder of its company was the actor and celebrity Michael Cera, seeding a four-week social media and influencer campaign that led up to the 2024 Super Bowl before revealing the stunt to the curious masses.
Social & Influencer Jury President, Chief Creative Officer, Partner of Special U.S, United States, said: “Our Social & Influencer Grand Prix winner is a wildly ambitious, lovably absurd, multi-channel, ultra-modern campaign that beautifully blurs the line between social, influencer, culture and advertising. It’s hard to classify, which is exactly why we chose it. But one thing is clear, it belongs firmly in this category because without the brilliant use of social and influencer, this idea doesn’t work. The haters will say it’s just a celebrity campaign, but it’s much smarter than that. Most importantly, it’s a symbol that taking a risk on brave, unexpected creativity can be beloved by culture, the industry and the business’s bottom line.”
The Media Network of the Year was also announced in the following rank:
1. OMD Worldwide
2. PHD Worldwide
3. Mediaplus
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